1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for protecting a database from an ongoing threat.
2. Related Art
A number of different of security techniques are presently being used in computer systems to safeguard valuable data. These security techniques include: authentication, access control lists, labeling, auditing, virtual private databases, obfuscation, and encryption.
Unfortunately, these security techniques offer, at best, only limited protection from a live or ongoing database threat or attack. In particular, existing database Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) detect attacks (for example, using auditing) and send notifications to database administrators, who can then take the necessary steps to respond to the attack. However, when an attack is detected these systems do not immediately take action to stop the attack. Consequently, the speed of response is slower that it could be, and data security can be compromised as a result of this delay.
Hence, what is needed are techniques that can be used to provide security in databases without the problems listed above.